“Body By Fisher” was the name; it was also the identity of the Buick and Cadillac brands among many others including: Ford, Hudson, Packard, Chevy, E.M.F. and Studebaker. Back when you could have any color Model T, as long as it was black, Cadillac was turning out some of the flashiest and most modern car designs. They owed that capability to the Fishers and their quality craftsmanship and attention to detail. The ability to contract with more than one company allowed them to produce more than 370,000 automobiles a year. The entire network consisted of more than 40 buildings in Michigan and Ohio.

During both World Wars these factories helped produce planes and tanks for the military. The Fisher network was the American industrial heart and soul when it came to winning the allied war against Hitler. It’s not a far stretch of the imagination to believe some of these factories may have been targets for bombings during this period. Stopping the production lines would have turned the war in favor of the Nazis, and could have made it impossible for the United States to win WWII.

The slogan and logo “Body By Fisher” was one of the most recognizable ad campaigns of the day. World renowned artists and photographers often relied on using top movie actresses to model the luxury and comfort that became synonymous with the Fishers’ body designs.

When I first explored the premises in late fall of 1999, the Fisher looked much the same. Though it was already pretty cleaned out by then, it had yet to be pillaged the way it has been during the past decade. As a teenager, I first saw the Fisher standing lonely, isolated and cold as I drove past. It called to the part of me that longed for mysterious dark things. It was captivating, to the point where it started to dominate my thoughts. It became a festering antagonizing feeling. It was the very first building I ever explored, and it was the catalyst I needed to change my life. The Fisher represents the nucleus of our American culture, in essence it's truly classic – dare I say, a “ruin among ruins” and a legend in its own right. The fact is, history oozes out of every pore of this building. It helped shape the face of the modern world and it was left to simply erode away.

On the upper floors you can still see remnants of the tracks that used to carry cars through the paint facility. Heat lamps along side the tracks would cure the paint as the factory line continued on. In its later years, the factory even painted and manufactured school buses and limousines. Inefficient and obsolete, it was known back then as the world's slowest assembly line. Cadillac eventually gave into the need to upgrade its lines and sold off the factory. The Cameo Color Coat Co. bought the property in 1991. This was when the ventilation stacks were added to the outside of the factory giving it the instantly recognizable look that it has today. They ventilated the fumes from the lower floors of the paint facility to the roof, spewing noxious gases into the air. Keeping the super structure running proved too difficult and it was abandoned just a few years later.

The factory had two large freight elevators on either end of the factory. These elevators were extra large and deep, big enough to transport multiple cars in. The carriages now lie mangled at the bottom, their support cables cut. Scrap thieves use the remaining shafts to heave heavy metal from heights as high as seven stories up. They retrieve their plunder later from the bottom. Despite the city’s efforts to secure the perimeter with fencing to keep trucks from driving inside, the scrap thieves have one-upped the city. Ironically now they steal the fencing, selling it too for scrap. Nothing stops this force of human nature!

The last of the Fisher brothers died in 1972, long before FB21 was left to the void of decay. The Fisher name however still lives on, their family run businesses Fisher Corp, Fisher Dynamics, and General Safety, still carry on the traditions of innovation that brought much success to the original Fisher Body Corporation and the City of Detroit. In 1944 the brothers turned their attention to the construction of their “legacy building,” simply known as the Fisher Building. It rises out from among the skyline of New-Center in Detroit’s cultural district. Its ornate, gothic look is truly breathtaking. This building, and their factories along with millions of dollars in money donated by the family’s various foundations, have cemented the Fisher name in the history of Detroit.

Scrap metal thieves looting Fisher Body #21 - onlynDetroit.com